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Monday, January 24 11:25 PM SGT
Hospital hostage takers add new demandsRATCHABURI, Thailand, Jan 24 (AFP) -Dissident Myanmar guerrillas who seized hundreds of hostages at a Thai hospital Monday have asked for two helicopters to help them escape to the border, a military intelligence source said. The God's Army guerrillas want to fly to the border like five gunmen who seized the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok last year, the source told AFP. They have also asked for communications equipment so they can talk to comrades at the border, he said. In return for their new demands and five earlier requests, the hostage takers had offered to leave one of their number behind, he added. "What we are now trying to negotiate is to convince them to surrender so we can help them find asylum in a third country," the source, at military headquarters in Bangkok told AFP. The source said that the hostage takers numbered 16 and were aged between 14 and 30. The ethnic Karen guerrillas have already demanded medical care for members of the rebel group and have called on Thailand to open its borders to Karen refugees fleeing the Myanmar military. Thailand has said it has agreed to two other demands, for its armed forces to stay away from the hospital and to stop firing shells at God's Army positions on the Myanmar border. It has also offered to open its borders to treat unarmed Karens. |